West Bengal: Bodies of four workers found 48 hours after factory fire

KOLKATA: Charred bodies of the four workers trapped inside the hosiery factory in New Barrackpore, that caught fire in the wee hours of Thursday, were finally recovered on Saturday morning. The bodies found near the second floor stairs indicated the workers had tried to escape to the roof but failed as the terrace door was padlocked. The fire that raged for nearly 48 hours left the factory and an adjoining medicine godown gutted. The bodies were identified by family members as Tanmoy Ghosh (32) of Nadia’s Haringhata, Subrata Ghosh (30) of Ranaghat, Amit Sen (28) of Habra and Swarup Ghosh of Ashokenagar’s Beraberia.
All bodies were sent to Kamarhati Sagore Dutta Medical College & Hospital for postmortem. “The bodies were severely burnt. Their families identified them by finger rings, chains, wristwatches and other accessories. They were lying on the second floor staircase near the door that led to the terrace. It appears they had made an attempt to reach the terrace but perished in the fire as the door was locked,” an officer of Barrackpore commissionerate said.
“My son was called by factory manager on Monday to resume the work. He spoke to me over phone on Wednesday evening. He didn’t return home that night due to cyclonic storm. But we never imagined that he would have to pay for the night stay with his life,” said Swarup’s father, Samir.
Manoj Kr Verma, the police commissioner of Barrackpore, said, “All the four bodies have beensent for postmortem. The factory was run illegally. An FIR was lodged against the factory owner and a raid is on to nab him.” Saugata Roy, Trinamool MP, handed over Rs 2 lakh cheque as compensation to each of the victims’ family at a Barrackpore BDO office on Saturday afternoon.